Lila Dubin

Lila Rachel Dubin, of Lafayette, CO, passed away June 27, 2014 at the TRU Hospice, after an eight year on and off battle against breast cancer. The first grandchild on both sides of the family, Lila was born March 18, 1968 at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD. to Mark and Alma Dubin. She lived in Boulder starting in 1971, when her father joined the faculty at the University of Colorado.
Lila came into this world a very beautiful, dark haired baby with enormous eyes that filled nearly half her face. At an early age she requested a sister, and when Lila was age four her sister Miriam was born. It is a well told story in the family that back at home, a newborn Miriam started crying in her crib. Four-year-old Lila ran up the stairs scooped Miriam out of the crib and carried baby Miriam down to their mother. From that day forward Lila became known as the world’s best big sister and never really let her little sister’s feet touch the ground again. This continued and was extended to her two beloved nieces Ziva and Rose Hamilton, ages 11 and 6. This same power to take on and carry others extended to her grandfather Sid Heller who survives Lila at age 104. Lila did not know how to give less than all of herself to her many, many beloved friends and their children. It is with special note that it needs to be said that this extends tenfold to her work as an ESL and ELL teacher in the St. Vrain public schools, never letting her students fail, and providing in her classroom a place where all felt safe.
Lila met any challenge in her life. In an early grade her dyslexia was discovered and she worked tirelessly and hard to overcome it. Lila graduated from Boulder High School as an Honors student and went on to graduate from Coe College with a dual degree in Theater and in English, in 1990, having won an award for her Honors work and election to Phi Beta Kappa. Lila then went on to get her Master’s Degree in TEFOL from the SIT Institute.
When Lila graduated high school she said she wanted to live in and travel the world. After college she went to the newly liberated eastern block to teach English at Charles University in the Slovak side of then Czechoslovakia. While there for 14 months she was able to travel to Italy, France, Greece, Hungary and many other places. Over the course of her life she became fluent in Slovak, Japanese and Spanish and gained a deep appreciation for many different cultures.
After getting her Master’s Degree, Lila found work teaching English in Japan, living there for four years. She again traveled widely, going to Thailand, Bali, Korea, Hong Kong, China, Australia and New Zealand to name a few. She leaves hundreds of friends worldwide. Once back home, Lila continued her travels living in Oaxaca Mexico one summer for an intensive Spanish language learning course, studying Spanish in Guatemala, and in Peru where she visited the famed Machu Picchu. Lila said that she went to these places to better learn Spanish and also to have a better idea of where her students came from.
All will remember Lila’s gift for living life to the fullest, and how she shared that gift with all she knew and loved. She showed all the courage that is talked about of a breast cancer survivor, which she never let get in the way of living and loving her life. She was a professional-level photographer, a talented actor and theater lover, a great cook, loved to sing, recently took up painting, and partied joyously with her friends.
Lila had an ability to let people feel they could confide in her and who felt trusted and loved. She saw the good in everyone while having a well-traveled understanding of the world and life. Lila was simply known as someone who had an almost limitless ability to love and help others. All who know her now have this wisdom and will continue it as her greatest legacy.
Lila is survived by her parents Mark and Alma Dubin, of Boulder, her sister Miriam (Drew) Hamilton and nieces Ziva and Rose Hamilton as well as her grandfather Heller, aunts Judith Factor and Trudy Heller, and first cousins Clair, Ross, Aviva, Tova, Nossan and many second cousins.